It's interesting what some people find boring and others don't, I've listened to this album on the whole at least 20 or so times. I guess you could call that a superhuman ability.
I do agree that The Ancient is a bunch of random wank. But I love the other three tracks, Ritual could have done without the drum solo though, you had an otherwise mellow song and it just sounded horribly out of place.
And I can't argue about Jon not being a terribly good lyricist, but I love his singing so it's never bothered me. Very few prog fans really care about lyrics, and I doubt Yes or most prog bands put a lot of emphasis on it, I think they just pick random words that best go along with the music.
Jon sure likes to say "retain" and "disgrace" a lot, that's for sure.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with your review, I was expecting something far more scathing.
But please stop dissing Roger Dean.
Also, I don't realy have anything against The Fall, it's just common practice that when someone trashes my favorite band, I trash theirs.
